


Savior

by therune



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-07
Updated: 2012-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 05:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm glad you're my brother" - written for the kinkeme...but is not kinky at all</p>
            </blockquote>





	Savior

Sherlock is 5 years old and he's bored. Bored. Bored out of his mind.  
It's sunday afternoon, mummy has just come home from a double shift at the hospital, and there's this woman in their living room. She is not exactly tall, nor is she fat, but she takes too much space of their tiny flat.  
After father left, mummy had to work longer and longer to provide for her two boys, and now there's this woman, taking even more time out of mummy's life. He looks at her like Mycroft does, he tries to see what she is like, but he cannot deduce well enough.

He squirms on the sofa, he wants to do something, check up on his experiments. Beside him, Mycroft is acting weird. He's unusually eager, smiles the fake smile that everyone besides Sherlock believes and with a laugh declares that he's going to be mother and pours tea for the stranger woman and mummy. Sherlock is about to declare this boring, to say something when Mycroft ruffles his hair, leans closer and promises Sherlock that he will show him the dead cat he found in the park yesterday if Sherlock behaves.  
Sherlock knows how to behave, even though he never wants to. But the lure of a dead cat is too much - anatomy, autopsy, biology, experiments and more - and he smiles the fake smile at the strange woman, answers her questions politely and then pretends to be very busy sipping his tea and watch Mycroft "playing" mother.

The woman leaves, everything seems well, but then mummy lets out this huge sigh and gathers her kids close, hugging them too tightly. Sherlock starts squirming and runs off to check up on his experiments. He makes a mental note to borrow Mycroft's dictionary, he needs to look up what 'domestic abuse follow-up' means.  
Mummy goes to bed, exhausted in more than one way while Mycroft cleans up the dishes, does the laundry, cooks dinner, as usual, and spends the rest of the time with Sherlock, answering questions and teaching him how to recognize people's jobs just by looking at their hands.

The realization that his father used to hit mummy, and that that is what 'domestic abuse' means, doesn't hit Sherlock until he's 7.

What the youth services could have done, doesn't hit him until he's 8.

That Mycroft has saved him countless times from many threats is something that Sherlock has always known, but finds difficult to accept.

Sherlock is 10 when he says it for the first time.  
It's his birthday. Mummy got him a chemistry set and had then fallen asleep on the couch. After Mycroft draped a blanket over her and shut the curtains, he leads Sherlock into their room and pulls a box from under his bed. Sherlock had known about the box, but the lock had proved too difficult for him. For now.  
Mycroft opens it and gives Sherlock his present.  
It's a skull. Sherlock runs his fingers over and it's real. It's not plastic like the one from the sceleton they have in school, this one is real.  
"I'm glad you're my brother," he says.  
Mycroft smiles that tiny genuine smile, that only Sherlock and mummy ever get to see.


End file.
